Music streaming service Slacker has launched a new iPad app. It offers the same basic features as the company’s popular iPhone app — but it’s optimized for the larger display.

The new app, for instance, lets you view information about the song that’s currently playing as well as the next song in the playlist at the top of the screen while the bottom lets you search for new artists, browse for new stations, or view lyrics, album info, or arist bios.

Slacker offers more than 150 genre-based music stations for free. Paid subscribers can also listen to music on demand or cache songs for offline playback.

You can download Slacker Radio for the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad for free from the App Store.

via CrunchGear

Most internet radio apps either let you choose from a list of curated music streams with songs selected by a DJ (or a machine), or create a new mix on-the-fly based on your musical tastes. TuneIn Radio is a good example of the former while Pandora is probably the most popular of the latter. Mixcloud is a new app which takes a different approach.

Mixcloud helps you discover radio programs, podcasts, and DJ mixes. The company calls them Cloudcasts which is basically the company’s name for a Podcast which is hosted online and streamed on-demand. You don’t download it to your device like a Podcast. But it’s not live like a radio stream. Instead a Cloudcast brings you a pre-recorded radio show or DJ mix.

Instead of streaming songs on demand, Mixcloud lets you stream a series of songs hand-picked by… somebody. That doesn’t just help you find music you might like, but also DJs or other users you might like. You can Cloucasts to your favorites and follow other Cloudcast users to find their latest mixes.

What Mixcloud doesn’t let you do is download songs or mixes to your device, skip tracks, or fast forward.

Mixcloud offers a web-based service, and this week the company also launched an iOS app which is available as a free, ad-supported download from the App Store.

via TechCrunch

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The radio program This American Life has offered iPhone and Android apps for a while, allowing users to listen to any episode of the show for just $2.99. Now there’s also an iPad app which runs $4.99.

Like the smartphone apps, the new iPad app lets you tune into more than 430 episodes on demand. You can also listen to the show live as it airs, and access extra audio and video features. You can also listen to individual stories instead of full episodes using the app — a feature which isn’t available on the This American Life website.

Of course, you can also stream episodes from the This American Life website for free, but the web player uses Adobe Flash, so it’s not available on the iPad. The app is also easier to navigate, since it’s designed for touch.

The iPad app will also let you download up to three episodes at a time to listen when you’re offline. You can also find extra features including behind the scenes photos and journals.

This American life for iPad is available from the App Store for $4.99.

via ReadWriteWeb

NPR has launched a new version of its mobile radio app for Google Android. NPR News 2.0 has a new user interface, support for favorite stations, additional programs, and the whole thing just feels a little smoother to use. But one of the biggest changes is that you can now listen to an entire episode of a recent radio show without having to queue up segments one at a time.

You can still listen to radio stories one at a time, browsing by top stories or topic. But when you want to listen to a specific show such as Morning Edition, Fresh Air, RadioLab, or All Things Considered, you’ll find a new “Add all to playlist” button at the top of the screen.

NPR News 2.0 is available as a free download from the Android Market.

via reddit

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Say you’re walking down a city street with an iPhone in hand. You can fire up dozens of apps that will let you find a sandwich shop, historic marker, coupon, or other item. And now you can also listen to people tell stories tied to the place where you’re standing, thanks to a new app called Broadcastr.

The app lets anyone create an audio recording for a location and share it with the world. Then when other users are wandering by, they can fire up Broadcastr on their phone and listen to your story. Right now there aren’t all that many recordings for the Philadelphia area, where I tried out the app, but I found a few amusing anecdotes from users, a public radio story from my local NPR member station, and what sounded like an ad for a local hospital.

I worry a bit that as the audio landscape gets more crowded we’ll start to find more ads and fewer engaging stories. But right now Broadcastr is a lot of fun to play around with, especially if you’re a public radio junkie looking for people telling their own stories in their own voices.

You don’t have to limit yourself to listening to audio recordings in your area. You can also zoom out on the map to find recordings from around the globe. And you can sort by category, with recording about crime, college, childhood, or citizen journalism — and that’s just in the “C” section. There’s also a featured section, which will help you find some of the best recordings.

Broadcastr currently offers a free app for the iPhone, with an Android app coming soon. You can also access Broadcastr’s interactive web site from a desktop web browser.

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TuneIn Radio is currently my favorite internet radio app for Android. You can use the app to find local stations that stream audio online based on your location, or browse or search for stations around the world by genre or keyword. You can also save presets. And since the app is from the folks behind the RadioTime internet radio service, if you already have a RadioTime account, when you login to TuneIn you’ll automatically find your presets.

While I use the free Android app, there are also free apps for BlackBerry and webOS and a $0.99 iOS app. Now TuneIn Radio is also available for Windows Phone 7.

For the most part, the free  Windows Phone 7 app seems to offer the same features you find in the other versions of the app including a directory of more than 30,000 radio stations. But the Windows Phone version takes advantage of the operating systems’ Metro UI, including the ability to swipe left or right to flip between different screens.

via AppScout

Streaming music service Last.fm has announced that it will shut off its free service for mobile users on February 15th. Users will need to sign up for a subscription to use the service on mobile phones.

Desktop users in the US, UK, and Germany will still be able to listen to a free, ad-supported service.The company says ad-supported internet radio “isn’t practical” for mobile devices.

Mobile users will be able to continue using other Last.fm features for free, including scrobbling, recommendations, and social networking.

Last.fm offers apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7. The company will offer a free trial period allowing new users to test the service before deciding whether to pay for a subscription.

via Download Squad

Research in Motion has launched BlackBerry Radio for a select group of beta testers. The app is designed to let you tune into mobile radio streams on your phone.

BlackBerry Radio works with multiple streaming radio services, which increases the chance that you’ll find the station you’re looking for. The app works with Slacker, Clear Channel radio streams, and other apps.

In fact, the app even lets you download other apps from within the BlackBerry Radio interface. For instance, if you find yourself listening primarily to Slacker stations, you can click a button to download Slacker Radio Premium.

The US version of the app also integrates with the BlackBerry Media ecosystem. For instance, you can find the BlackBerry Radio link from the music menu, and while you’re listening to music in BlackBerry Radio, you can click a button to buy songs from the Amazon MP3 app.

BlackBerry Radio should be available in the BlackBerry Beta Zone for some users.